140 
BEES AND BEE-KEEPING. 
may be liberated, that mother and children together 
may pass into their new home. 
By carefully looking over a hanging swarm, the 
queen may often be seen walking over its surface, 
and occasionally passing into the interior. I am led, 
however, to remark, from constant observation, that 
the queen is not by any means always seen at the 
lower part of the collected mass of bees, as one writer 
at least has ventured very positively to assert. So 
soon as a glimpse of her is obtained, she may be 
grasped quickly and tenderly, and treated as in the 
case just supposed. Many times I have so caught 
her ladyship, and, having imprisoned her beneath a 
pipe-cover cage of large mesh, fixed on to a side 
of a broken section by an indiarubber band, have 
brought the swarm back to her, and to the hive I 
intended it to occupy. Before carrying off the queen, 
it is well either to shake some part of the cluster 
off into the air, or to hold the cage in contact with 
it for a minute or two, when a bunch of bees collects 
upon it, attending to the queen’s wants pending the 
arrival of the main body. Of course, after the swarm 
has returned, it may be placed in any position we 
please, since bees, under the swarming impulse, seem 
to utterly disregard the stock to which they pre- 
viously belonged, and adhere to their new abode, 
wherever situated. 
Although we are here discussing natural increase, 
a method must be introduced which is distinctly 
artificial. It consists in removing one or both of the 
anterior wings of the queen, so as to prevent her 
travelling to a distance to establish a new colony. 
